La Jornada: Labor productivity fell 0.1% in the first quarter, reports the Inegi

In the first three months of this year, the productivity of Mexican workers fell 0.1 percent compared to the last quarter of last year, due to a drop in the performance of the secondary sector (construction or manufacturing) and stagnation in services, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

Yesterday, the organization presented the indicators of labor productivity and the unit cost of labor, which allow us to know and evaluate how efficient the contribution of the labor factor is to the production process.

Within is the Global Index of Labor Productivity of the Economy (IGPLE), which was the one that decreased compared to the immediately previous quarter.

According to Inegi, labor productivity in the primary sector, which is the one in which activities such as livestock, agriculture or fishing are found, advanced 0.6 percent between the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2026.

For its part, in the secondary sector, which incorporates the construction or manufacturing sector, there was a drop of 0.3 percent; while in the tertiary sector, that of services, stagnation was recorded.

In practical terms, labor productivity serves to measure how much is produced thanks to people’s work. When it increases, it means that more goods and services are generated with the same amount of work, and when it decreases, the opposite occurs.

The figures presented by Inegi are seasonally adjusted, that is, they exclude temporal factors specific to certain times of the year to facilitate comparison between various periods.

The decline in the indicator occurred in an environment that was marked by lower economic dynamism. During the first quarter of the year, activity fell 0.6 percent, according to figures reviewed by the institute itself.

According to the information published by Inegi, compared to the first quarter, but last year, the IGPLE advanced 0.1 percent.

In primary activities, productivity grew one percent and in tertiary activities the increase was 0.7 percent.

In contrast, in secondary schools, labor productivity had a decline of 1.2 percent compared to the first quarter of 2025.

The information from Inegi pointed out that, in the construction company sector, productivity advanced 0.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 and 2.5 percent compared to last year.

In manufacturing industries there was a drop of 0.1 percent quarterly and an advance of 3.2 percent annually; In wholesale trade the growth was 1.5 and 4.6 percent, and in retail trade the increases were 0.4 and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, in non-financial private services companies there was a drop of 0.3 percent at a quarterly rate and an advance of 0.1 percent annually.